Homesick for a World Unknown

“Engaging, often lyrical . . . Horn, a writer on environmental themes who previously worked for conservation groups, has obvious affection and admiration for her subject and his late wife, Kay, who often shared the dangers and deprivations of his long career. Both cooperated with the project, giving the author access to intimate family correspondence. But as Horn makes clear, despite her subject’s voluminous bibliography and more than 20,000 pages of accumulated field notes, the awkward, taciturn Schaller remains for her something of an ‘opaque creature,’ not unlike those whose lives he devoted himself to understanding . . . Schaller found his deepest satisfactions by disappearing into the last wildernesses, his eyes wide open. We could all stand to learn from his humility.” —Gary Rosen, The New York Times Book Review

“How can we live alongside animals in the 21st century? In Homesick for a World Unknown, Miriam Horn makes a convincing case that we should listen to the pioneering zoologist George Schaller . . . Ms. Horn, whose previous books include Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman (2016), about grassroots conservation in the U.S., worked closely with Mr. Schaller for this biography, accompanying him twice on field trips. She makes good use of Mr. Schaller’s field journals (he always kept two, one for data, one for narrative), as well as letters and papers Mr. Schaller’s father submitted to the German Foreign Service after the war . . . Ms. Horn makes an impassioned case for Mr. Schaller’s legacy. She conveys the healing value, in a broken world, of solitary communion with nature.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Meticulously researched, gripping… Horn’s biography is a magnificent tribute not only to a giant of a scientist but also to a nearly vanished way of doing fieldwork: A science-trained person yearns to connect with other animals, observes them at length with binoculars and notebook in hand, and fires up to protect them from forces such as poaching and livestock overgrazing, government corruption, and climate change. Horn accurately sums up Schaller’s legacy: His work reminds us that ‘every being has an equal claim on life and freedom.’” —Science

“Homesick for a World Unknown is an extraordinarily engaging biography of an extraordinarily effective conservation biologist. Whether you’ve been following George Schaller’s pioneering studies and reading his books for half a century or you have just learned of him, you will devour this book and admire its subject.” —Rewilding Magazine

“In Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller, Miriam Horn attempts something both straightforward and unusually difficult: to write a full biography of a man who spent most of his life turning his attention away from himself . . . The result is a book that is expansive without being intrusive, admiring without being reverential, and alert to ambiguity even when recounting an extraordinary career . . . The book is particularly strong when describing the practical consequences of Schaller’s work. His studies were not only descriptive; they became foundational . . . Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Peter Matthiessen, Robert Sapolsky, and many others were shaped by his work, sometimes directly . . . Schaller did not seek to dominate nature or withdraw from it. He tried, persistently, to understand it on its own terms. That ambition, modest and radical at once, gives Homesick for a World Unknown its lasting weight.” —Mongabay

“Schaller’s research laid the groundwork for the field of conservation biology, and his commitment to translating his findings into real-world action likely saved numerous species from extinction — earning him acclaim from the likes of David Attenborough and Michael Crichton as the most important animal researcher in the 20th century. In Homesick for a World Unknown, author and filmmaker Miriam Horn documents the triumphs, tragedies, frustrations, and monotonies behind these achievements . . . Impressively researched.” —Undark

“Considered by many the most effective conservationist of the past century, George Schaller — the first researcher to walk among wild gorillas unarmed and be rewarded with unprecedented insight into their universe, the first to take a photograph of the elusive snow leopard, rigorous and sensitive biographer of the lives of species as varied as the African lion and the Tibetan antelope, and now himself the subject of Miriam Horn’s rigorous and sensitive biography Homesick for a World Unknown — has spent the better portion of his days in wild places where ‘one settles at times for mere survival,’ bitten and blistered and burnt, often haunted by his sense of ‘terrible loneliness’ and ‘utter insignificance,’ yet determined to prevail over parasites and bureaucrats and armed rebels to bring us a little bit closer to the abiding mystery of that unreachable otherness dwelling inside every consciousness, every sensorium, every animal body nerved with the history of its habitat and its habits.” —The Marginalian

“[A] comprehensive biography of the renowned scientist and adventurer . . . A fine account of a life well lived, to the benefit of all who love animals.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“An invaluable portrait . . . As lavishly specific as its subject’s lifework . . . Horn is a spirited, virtuoso biographer and this tour de force is electric with Schaller’s dramatic and audacious pursuits, epic fortitude and determination, intrepidness and diplomacy, camouflaged pain and sheer ecstasy over the marvels of Earth, all charged by his resounding belief that ‘every being has an equal claim on life and freedom.’”—Booklist (starred review)

“A must-read for anyone interested in the history of conservation, as well as readers looking for solutions to current-day conservation crises.” —Laura Nan Hargrove, Library Journal (starred review)

“George Schaller seems to have met, and understood, every animal on earth, from Serengeti lions to South American jaguars to Tibetan brown bears. As notable for his foundational texts as for his unorthodox methods, Schaller could lasso an anaconda and mesmerize a panda. (Then there were the unusual pets, the lion cub, warthog, sand boa, and mongoose among them). First in the field, Schaller was the last of his kind; Miriam Horn makes us homesick for his brand of immersive adventure in this splendid, gracefully written biography.” —Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Revolutionary

“A magnificent and inspiring book on a magnificent and inspiring life. George Schaller’s work has forever changed our understanding of animals and the science of conservation and field biology, and this book explores the deep—and at times dark—well from which he draws his extraordinary courage, compassion, and insight. I was riveted from page one, and you will be, too.” —Sy Montgomery, National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus

“Before there was Goodall or Fossey, before there were National Geographic wildlife films, school conservation clubs, Earth Day, there was George Schaller, our greatest naturalist. For 70 years, he has gone to Earth’s last wild places to understand their animals, to translate and advocate for them, all while seemingly never leaving a soiling footprint in his wake. This is the beautiful biography that those of us in awe of Schaller have waited for.” —Robert Sapolsky, New York Times bestselling author of Determined and Behave

“An enthralling, engaging masterwork, Homesick for a World Unknown follows almost day by day the life of the pioneering field biologist George Schaller. As he did, we live among Congo gorillas, Indian tigers, Serengeti lions, Tibetan bears. He taught Jane Goodall how to study chimps. He set an example for whole generations of scientists. What a story!” —Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Scientist

“A brilliant, beautifully crafted biography of the world’s most intrepid explorer and naturalist. Miriam Horn captures George Schaller’s relentless, patient encounters with Africa’s mountain gorillas, Nepal’s snow leopards and dozens of other fast-disappearing wildlife throughout the globe. Schaller’s life is a heart-rending story of physical courage, stamina and human empathy for the private lives of these remarkable creatures. Horn’s Schaller is at once an adventure story, a love story and an inspiring celebration of scientific inquiry. A formidable achievement.” —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography